The pastry shop that Francoism fined for having its name in Catalan has made an award-winning 'mona'

The five shop windows of the La Colmena pastry shop in Barcelona (Plaza del Ángel, 12) are decorated with chocolate 'monas', chicks, and feathers. There is one, the corner shop window, which is under construction, and has its blind down. When it is fixed, they will also decorate it with Easter 'monas'. In the past, assures Josep Maria Roig, the father of the current generation of La Colmena pastry chefs, there were queues of people to observe what they had put out, and the urban guard had to maintain order. "Now there are no longer godparents to give 'monas' to, nor do people go for strolls, and 'monas' are sold on supermarket shelves, at petrol stations," says Josep Maria with a twinkle in his eye, who is a great expert in sweet traditions, as demonstrated by the exhaustive library he has on pastry making. He knows so much that he is preparing a book, but we will explain that later; let's talk about the prize now. La Colmena has won the 'La Mejor Mona de Pascua' (The Best Easter 'Mona') competition, which this year has reached its fifth edition, and it is organized by the Sr y Sra Cake agency. Let's go look for it in the shop window that faces the door. There it is displayed as if it were welcoming us. It is a pirate parrot, with its eye patch, a hook, and in its claws it holds a small chocolate egg. "It's Jack Sparrow, the captain played by Johnny Depp in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean", explains Xavi Arévalo, head of the bakery and creator of the winning 'mona'. While he is sticking spheres and eggs together to prepare other 'monas', next to him Toni Roig, Josep Maria's son, is making meringues, which are very traditional at La Colmena, as well as candies of a thousand and one flavors, which they prepare just as they were made in the 17th century. Premium quality chocolate

We continue with the chocolate parrot. It weighs four kilos and they pick it up carefully with both hands. It measures about fifty centimeters, and it is already sold. I ask them the price, and first they tell me that the chocolate they use is of the highest quality, organic, and that the price they pay for it is high. If to this fact, you add the working days they have dedicated to it, which have been many, all together gives the price of 300 euros, which is what the winning mona costs. "I started preparing it in February, the skeleton, and then little by little," says Arévalo. The parrot has its structure made with six chocolate eggs, and the rest are hemispheres with which the parts of the body are composed. The head of the La Colmena workshop decided on a pirate parrot, because he thinks it is timeless, that the theme does not go out of style. "The same happens with the seabed and space, which are always liked." On the other hand, this year they know that the monas that the little ones ask for are those based on the series Stranger Things. "Even creatures who haven't seen the series ask for them, because they are very small." Be that as it may, the fact is that this week, at La Colmena, they stop making chocolate monas, they must have them all made by now, and they dedicate themselves to Cristinas, that is, sugar buns documented since the 15th century.

In the past, many years ago, the monas were made to human size. A relative of La Colmena made them. That was when those queues formed in front of the pastry shop's display window, which has another name on the paper wrappers. "We were called L’Abella, but during the dictatorship we received a fine for having the name in Catalan; then we changed it, and when we tried to get it back, it turned out it was already registered, by Rumasa among others, and we couldn't get it back," says the father. That's why the wrappers say "La Colmena. Antigua casa L’Abella". And they will continue to do so next year too, when it will be 100 years since the Roig family took over the same pastry shop. "Before, we Roigs were at la pastelería L’Estrella, on Nou de la Rambla street, where we were from 1916 to 1932; in 1927 the brothers Josep and Francesc Roig Manubens, the grandfather and uncle, took over La Colmena, and they divided the tasks: one in the workshop; the other, in the shop," explains Josep Maria. It was Josep who made the human-sized monas, always very creative.Josep Maria Roig is writing a book about all of this history together with the professor of Modern History María Ángeles Pérez Samper. "In the past, monas were made with crystallized sugar, also with praline; the first monas were the tortada, sponge cake decorated with icing sugar, decorated with sugar eggs and small feathers". He will also provide information that pastry shops began in the mid-19th century; before that, they were pharmacies and, later, confectioneries. "When we started, we sold sweets, candies, bonbons, syrups, cream nougat; candied fruit, and we also roasted coffee".

With La Colmena candies, we need to make a good paragraph because "they are unique; we make them with the same 17th-century recipe". That is, the ingredients are sugar, extract of the flavor we want them to have, and water. And nothing else. They have them all in glass jars, which occupy a large part of one of the main counters, and they have them grouped by flavors: fennel, thyme, lemon, orange, pomegranate, honey, and many more. "We make them daily; they already made them in the pharmacy; think that in Pere IV, anise candies were already taken on his expeditions, so the tradition of candies in our house is very old," says Josep Maria, who would spend hours explaining good curiosities: "The Colmena space had previously been the old prison of Barcelona". And the last one, the Roig brothers' pastry shop was transferred to the name of Josep Maria's father, who was an orphan. From father to son, and now to Toni Roig, who listens to his father attentively while continuing to make meringues, candies, and also one of the most traditional desserts of the pastry shop and of Barcelona: encasadas, made with ricotta. "Jon Cake Garcia told us that they should have become the desserts of La Mercè due to their antiquity, but the truth is also that the ones they have invented, with figs, we also sell them very well", concludes Toni Roig.The baker Jordi Morera, from L'Espiga d'Or, award for the best Cristina

The sugar brioche from L'Espiga d'Or bakery in Vilanova i la Geltrú, the traditional Cristina, is the best, according to the jury members of the La Mejor Mona de Pascua contest. Baker Jordi Morera, who is in charge of L'Espiga d'Or, prepares them with sourdough and spices, and is one of the great defenders of traditional sweets. In his bakery, he also makes breads with a thousand and one flours, which he grows himself, and grinds in the mill he has in the workshop.